Marked for Ignacio Martínez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mathías Abero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Uruguay Montevideo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager plants his flag on Emiliano García
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Emiliano García’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Uruguay Montevideo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
Fausto Rivero has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uruguay Montevideo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mathías Abero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oriental have kept their man, and Uruguay Montevideo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ignacio Martínez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market4 Jan 2027
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Uruguay Montevideo no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uruguay Montevideo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Cristian Lima moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Uruguay Montevideo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Uruguay Montevideo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Dec 2026
Pablo Pírez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uruguay Montevideo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignacio Martínez and Uruguay Montevideo agree another 3 years.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Olavarría was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market21 Dec 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.